REVIEW: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

BARD OF AVON CALLING: Matt Bachus as Himself, Len Matheo as Himself and Bruce Montgomery as The Women in the Evergreen Players' uproarious production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Photo Credit: Ellen Nelson

With the ambitious and auspicious stated goal of presenting (or at least mentioning) Shakespeare's complete canon, there's only one thing a theatre company can do: send in the clowns.

Evergreen Players is celebrating its 60th year with a remounted version of its sold-out 2008 production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), with the same cast, same director, and same manic hilarity as before.

Matt Bachus and Len Matheo (as themselves), and Bruce Montgomery (as all the women) take the audience on a merry and mirthful steeplechase of a ride through Shakespeare's works, skewering one sacred cow after another with split-second timing, brilliant wit, outrageous prop and gags, quick costume changes, pratfalls, gross-out humor and irrepressible, uninhibited glee.

Some of the bits are quick skits, like the stupefyingly bloody Titus Andronicus presented as a Julia Child-style cooking show, Othello as a woefully "white" rapper's nightmare, and all the history plays presented as a running, tripping and falling playground game of "capture the crown."  The comedies are all lumped together as one unlikely plot synopsis using Shakespeare's favorite comic devices. Strangely, the conglomerated plot is not much more bizarre or harder to accept than the premises of the individual plays.

The tragedies warrant more attention than the other plays because, well, they're funnier. That was certainly the case with their rendition of Macbeth, performed with PERFECT SCOTTISH ACCENTS, and where the Claymore broadswords turned out to be golf clubs.

Others scenes are more fully developed, including the opening sketch presenting large and accurately quoted parts of Romeo and Juliet but reinterpreted for maximum laughs, and the entire second act, which is devoted to staging a wacky version of Hamlet, then doing it again faster, then even faster, and finally backwards.

Just as tragedies need comic relief to re-set our pathos, this farcical free-for-all has a moment of "dramatic relief" to re-set our laughometers, as Montgomery movingly recites Hamlet's "What a piece of work is man" soliloquy, then instantly snaps out of it to dress up like Ophelia again and "vomit" on the audience.

Performing this style of comedy is extremely difficult, and the cast is more than up to the task. What amazing talent and virtuosity they display, and how they must trust one another. Matheo, as the supposed Shakespearean scholar in a tweed jacket and pink tights is a riot, and Bachus brings a kind of crazed John Lithgow-esque toppling stature to the show.

If acting in this kind of comedy is demanding, DIRECTING it must be a logistical nightmare. Scott Ogle's staging and pacing is spot on, and just as playwrights Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Borgeson played fast and loose with the original texts, Ogle realizes that this production of Abridged needs to be kept fresh and relevant to work, and so has updated some references.

The more you know about Shakespeare's plays, the more you'll be able to appreciate the genuine wit and understanding underlying the buffoonery. But if you are a neophyte, never fear. There's plenty of crude, outrageous and unrepentant fun to be had at the Bard's expense. There's also audience participation.
Some of the plays may get short shrift, but there's an abundance of rollicking, roiling, boisterous guffaws and giggles, from curtain to curtain. Shakespeare may be rolling over in his grave, but if he is, it's because of his own side-splitting laughter. Play on!


The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) plays Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. through April 3 at Center/Stage, 27608 Fireweed Drive, Evergreen. Tickets are $14-18. This show is appropriate for teens and adults. Call 303-674-4934 or visit www.evergreenplayers.org.